PROXIMITY- The Ministry of Reconciliation- MONDAY

As I read the verse, the words "ministry of reconciliation" popped out to me like the dawn when the Sun rises from the East and says to me, "WAKE UP and GET UP!"   I knew immediately that the Lord was telling me something new and special, and it required an inward look at my heart.  Like most wake up calls from the Lord, I have found that He was about to show me something about Himself and how He looks at people.  But, His revelation would strategically move from Himself to me, and a necessary connection that was missing in me would be found.  He would show me that He has given to His family a quality of His own that could reach many people as no other influence could reach them, and if we would use it as He does, it will give hope to the hopeless, forgiveness to the offender, and restoration to the estranged.  But similar to the requirement that He would need to be the Initiator to reconcile us to Him, would be the requirement that His family would need to be the initiator to reconcile others to God, and to ourselves.  Like most of you, I asked how I could do such a work that only God could do?  His answer was what popped out to me.  It is because He gives us a ministry of reconciliation, and it is this aspect of Him that He imparts to help us do some impossible things, especially in the area of forgiveness and restoration.

This week I want to explore what the ministry of reconciliation could mean to you, where it begins, how it is transferred and how the fruit of reconciliation opens hearts to Christ.  If you are like me, you need to understand that what we are invited to initiate toward other people is a characteristic of God living in us, and then Him loving through us.  This vital connection begins a process that walks someone to the throne of God by what they see in us. Tune in tomorrow and we will explore what reconciliation means from God's point of view.  Today is only the wake up call for what comes next.

"All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us theministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation."  (2 Corinthians 5:18-19 ESV)